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Fort Bend County - A Fort Bend ISD autistic child was brought to the wrong school by his bus driver.
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Jacqueline Poole says around 7 a.m. on Sept. 19 her 9-year-old son Ladarrion got on the bus headed to his school, Palmer Elementary, in Missouri City. She received a call around Noon that day from the Assistant Director of Transportation who said Ladarrion was sent to Lantern Lane Elementary instead - a school about 2 miles away.
"I was scared. It affected me emotionally," said Poole. "I was crying because my son doesn't know how to talk. He's been at a school. No one's familiar with him...and you're talking to me like this was ok."
Fort Bend ISD confirms the incident happened, and said the mistake was discovered by campus staff within 10 minutes. The transportation department was alerted, and the driver returned to the school to pick the child up and deliver him to the right campus, according to the district spokesperson.
Poole also had a meeting with the transportation department later that evening but tells Fox 26 she felt like the incident was not taken seriously.
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Special needs child in Fort Bend ISD dropped off at wrong school
A Fort Bend ISD autistic child was brought to the wrong school by his bus driver. Jacqueline Poole says around 7 am on Sept. 19 her 9-year-old son Ladarrion got on the bus headed to his school, Palmer Elementary, in Missouri City. She received a call around Noon that day from the Assistant Director of Transportation who said Ladarrion was sent to Lantern Lane Elementary instead - a school about 2 miles away.
"They didn't make an incident report," said Poole. "You dropped a kid off at the wrong school, what do you mean? They said they don't normally make an incident report for these circumstances."
The district also told Fox 26 that incident reports involving buses are mainly if there's a fight, a car accident involving the bus, or if a child becomes ill while in transit.
Poole and her friend April Duncan were both bus monitors for the district and say there should have been a more efficient drop-off process.
"There were two schools on that one route," said Duncan. "I would have made sure who was who by calling transportation and getting a list from the supervisor or somebody before I released any student off the bus. Whatever title you carry, when you're working in anybody's school district, it's a paper trail. It has to be a paper trail. That's not fair for the students who can't speak for themselves."
The district said they apologized to the family and issued this full statement to Fox 26:
A driver mistakenly allowed a student to get off the bus at the wrong school. Within 10 minutes the mistake was discovered by campus staff who alerted the district’s Transportation Department. The driver returned to the school, picked up the student and delivered him to the correct campus. The child was attended by a district staff member at all times during the incident.
We apologize for the error. We are now in the process of making a change to our system so that something like this does not happen again.